A pair of properties that currently host two empty structures on Crozet Avenue are up for sale by owner Mike Alexander, who also owns and runs Crozet Pizza on Three Notch’d Road. The Region Ten building and former Piedmont Pediatrics site were acquired by Alexander in the 1990s and 2010s, respectively, and he envisioned a restaurant and tap house concept with a connecting courtyard between the two. His team was poised to renovate the Region Ten building when the pandemic and ensuing construction market chaos threw a wrench into those plans.
“The 1205 building [Region Ten’s street address] had a full-blown building permit all the way approved and was getting ready to break ground, and then Covid hit,” said broker Pete Kooken, a co-owner of Dogwood Realty, who is representing Alexander on the sale. “Obviously we didn’t know where things were going to go. The restaurant industry definitely suffered and everything got put on hold. Post-Covid, materials costs went up and some of the materials we were going to use just weren’t available.” Charlottesville’s NOLA Build and Design had done the design and engineering work on the project.
Alexander and his team were considering what to do next when his tenant in the other building, Piedmont Pediatrics, decided to move to a larger location on Jarmans Gap Road. “When that happened, the owners began to think about what could be done with both properties, the whole thing,” said Kooken. “The 1205 property line owns the alleyway, and there’s a shared parking agreement between the two buildings. So, by owning that street you really could have a courtyard.” While that project lost momentum before becoming a reality, the prospect is still alive for potential buyers.
“The idea of Crozet becoming more of a walking town is definitely alive,” said Kooken. “The county put in all of these streetscape features and lights in preparation for it. They even have lighting in the back alley, knowing that a lot of the flow is going to come from that [eastern] direction as well as from Old Trail and other neighborhoods.” The Dogwood Realty office is housed in the iconic Blue Goose building across the street from the for-sale properties, and Kooken said he sees “people walking both sides of the street all day, biking, walking with strollers, coming and going.”…